Author's Note:

I had some down time at work today, and tried to pretty up the fireball spell I drew for Chapter 6, so now I have a passable cover pic.

Also, the following chapter gives a little more info about how spells work. Antoine doesn't know this, but the dwarven language uses runes that are very similar to the old Norse Futhark. I've expanded a few of their meanings to fit the story's needs, but the names, shapes and most of the meanings are the same.

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One of the things we've discovered during the march from the clearing I entered this world from and the Necromancer's ruined fort is that the symbols I see when I look at spells are very similar to the alphabet used by the dwarves. This meant that I now had names to go with the symbols, and didn't need to describe them anymore. Even more interesting and useful, the Dwarven alphabet was based on the old system of runes the ancient dwarves used for divining the future, and the meanings assigned to each rune were very close to the effects the spell symbols had.

This meant that I could now make an educated guess about what each of the symbols that make up an unknown spell do, and aim my counters accordingly.

I also learned that a spell could be prepared, charged up, and held back without releasing it by linking the last symbol in the spell back to the first. Then, with a simple mental command, the link is erased and the spell is released. This delayed cast method is how the Necromancer was able to cast a spell on us this quickly and without any chanting or gestures.

Seeing that vile looking spell flying towards us, I quickly shifted to my magical vision, and erased Thurisaz, in its meaning of "directed force of destruction" from the approaching spell, stopping it in place. Then, a couple of seconds later, I erased Laguz in merkstave, or reversed, in its meaning of "caught in a circle", causing the spell to burst and the green fire to spray on the first skeleton to walk beneath it. The skeleton's bones immediately started to burn and crumble, and within seconds nothing but ashes was left of it.

Hilde, of course, started charging towards the Necromancer as soon as the battle started, and smashed into the skeletons mere seconds after I caused the spell to backfire, and unlike the previous battles, she wasn't holding back this time. Her motions, which were utilitarian and meant to conserve stamina in the previous fights, were now more extravagant, and as she started chanting in Dwarf, I realized that her hammer swings were doubling as spell gestures. Her hammer started glowing bright red, and I could see that her blows held more force than could be accounted for by even a dwarven knight's prodigious muscles. Melissa, meanwhile was slinging fireballs towards the vampire, trying to keep it from the fight long enough for Hilde to finish with the skeletons.

This, of course, left the Necromancer to me, and with the amount of spells she had stored up and ready, I had an extremely hard time keeping up. She started by casting more of the green fireballs, which I could now see were using a combination of the runes Fehu and Uruz, both merkstave. Based on the effect on the first skeleton, I too their meaning to be "atrophy" and "sickness" instead of the Sowilo, or "cleansing fire" in Melissa's fireballs. I didn't want those spells reaching Hilde, so I countered them over the rearmost skeletons, destroying two more of them before the Necromancer realized what I was doing and after screaming what I was sure were various profanities I couldn't understand, switched to different spells, which I judged by their runes to have mental effects, and therefore useless against the skeletons. These spells I countered as soon as she cast them, and they had no effect on either the Necromancer's forces or us. By this point, Hilde was finished with the skeletons and had turned to the vampire. Unfortunately, the vampire vanished into the shadows as she closed in on it, only to appear behind Melissa and bite her before any of us could react. Distracted by Melissa's plight, I failed to counter the Necromancer's next spell, and it hit Hilde, freezing her in place.

With Melissa disabled by the vampire, the Necromancer turned to me, and before I could try to remove the spell from Hilde, she pointed her staff at me and a beam of black energy hit me, too fast for me to react.

The minute the beam touched me, I started to feel more pain than I've ever felt before. It felt like a syringe was driven into every cell in my body and immediately used to drain something from all of them at the same time. Even in my agony, it took me only a second to realize that I've been hit with the Curse of Bones, and the Necromancer was now draining all my life from me. I also knew that there was no way that I, with my limited training and even more limited magical power, would be able to cast the incredibly complex, incredibly demanding ritual needed to Subvert the Curse, and that if I let the spell run its course, I would be finished. My hands were still coated in the layer of magical energy I used to counter spells, and I grasped the black beam in my left hand, twisted it around my wrist to get a better grip, and pulled with all my strength. The pain I felt immediately lessened, and I knew that the draining was stopped for now, but the spell tagged at me with relentless strength, and there was no way for me to keep hold of it for long.

I had to act fast, before I either lost the tag of war, or the vampire came for me. The black beam of the Curse of Bones started at a big gem embedded in the Necromancer's staff, and by looking really closely I could see the spell that was creating it. I didn't have the time to analyze the spell properly, so I used my right hand to form the same short circuit spell I used to drain the power of the trap in the gate tunnel, and sent it at the gem. The Necromancer screamed in fear and pain as the gem shattered, and I felt all of the life force drained from me slam back into my body, followed by what seemed like the life drained out of every skeleton we've fought in this ruin.

I couldn't think and I could barely see, and I felt like I was drunk and high at the same time.

I vaguely remember seeing the Necromancer fly back from the explosion and hit the wall behind her, and Hilde breaking free from the spell that froze her.

I remember flashes of Hilde running to Melissa and killing the vampire with a single hit from her glowing hammer, and then frantically casting spells at her to save her from dying of blood loss.

Something or someone must have killed the Necromancer, because the next thing I could remember clearly was seeing Hilde pulverize what remained of the black staff, after verifying that the Necromancer was dead. I was lying next to the unconscious Melissa, with no idea how I came to be horizontal.

When she saw that I was coherent again, Hilde turned to me, and I could see that she was exhausted from the fight and frantically healing Melissa. "What… what did you do?" she asked me. "I saw you hit by the Curse of Bones. How are you even still alive?"

I tried to answer her, but found that my voice was completely hoarse. I didn't remember screaming when the Curse hit me, but I didn't remember much except for the pain.

It took me a while to reach into one of the packs and take out a waterskin, but I eventually managed to explain what I did.

"This is…" She started, "I can't even begin to think about what this means. You have to get to Aegis and talk to the dragons."

I was too hoarse to do much more than nod at her words, and shortly afterwards she took off her armor, started a fire and the two of us sat down on one of the bedrolls, staring into the flames and throwing off the lingering terror of the fight.

After what could have been a couple of minutes or half an hour, I felt Hilde's hand on my shoulder, and turned to her. She didn't say a word, but when I looked into her eyes, I saw a clear invitation in them.

I leaned slowly toward her, and she didn't draw back from me, and her mouth opened in anticipation as I drew closer. Her lips were soft, and I could taste the sweetness of the mead she had after the fight as I kissed her.

Spoiler: explicit content follows!

I deepened the kiss, sliding my tongue between her lips as I slid my right hand around her waist and my right behind her head. I saw her in battle, and I could feel her strong muscles under my hands, and I knew that she was far stronger than me, but she offered no resistance when I gently pushed her down on the bedroll and lay on top of her. I worked my left hand under her thick red hair and gently massaged her scalp, while my right hand slid down from her waste to her left thigh. I raised my mouth from hers, and slowly trailed kisses down her chin, around her soft beard, and to her neck, stopping on the spot her neck became her shoulder. She moaned as I licked the sensitive spot and breathed in her scent.

Hilde's skin smelled of the silvered steel of her armor, and the sweet smell of the oil she used to clean it, and beneath it a heady, earthy smell that must have been her own, and after the exertion of battle, her skin tasted salty from her sweat. I wouldn't have expected it before this, but I found the combination to be incredibly arousing.

Hilde was talking softly in a language I couldn't understand, even with the translation spell on me, but I could hear the encouragement in her voice, so I pulled back a bit and pushed open the padded garments she usually wore under her armor, revealing her magnificent body. Her skin, white but with the slight coppery sheen she must have acquired when she subverted the Curse of Blood, was smooth and unblemished. Her breasts were the largest I've ever seen on any woman who wasn't surgically enhanced, topped with large areolae and hard, copper colored nipples, and had no sag at all. Underneath her gorgeous breasts, I could see a well-defined six pack, leading down to a well-trimmed patch of red hair between her legs.

I admired Hilde's beauty for a few seconds, and then I returned my left hand to its place behind her head, and took her heavy left breast in my right, caressing it and lightly pinching the nipple as I leaned forward to kiss her again. She gasped into my mouth, and I could feel her forcibly restraining herself from flipping me and taking over. I traced the path down her chin and neck again, this time continuing the trail of kisses up the smooth expanse of her right breast, circled her nipple with my tongue before taking it into my mouth and sucking. Hilde gasped again, and grasped the back of my head with her right hand, holding it in place over her nipple.

I kept alternating between sucking her nipple and licking around it, and caressed her skin with my right hand, slowly working my way down to her smooth buttocks, squeezing the firm flesh and drawing further moans and muttered encouragements. After a couple of minutes, Hilde moved my head to her other breast, and I happily paid my homage to her left nipple.

Leaving her glorious breasts, I continued my trail of kisses down Hilde's body, licking and kissing her smoothly muscled stomach on my way down to her pubic hair, and teasingly circling around it to kiss my way down the inside of her smooth right thigh. Hilde's thigh felt amazing to kiss. Her skin was soft and smooth, but the muscle beneath it was as hard as rock. I could feel her struggling to stay still and let me pleasure her as I kissed my way down her thigh and shin, and then switched to her left leg and back up to her stomach. I circled her pubic hair again, and finally ran my tongue into her wet slit. Hilde tasted tangy and intoxicating, and her loud gasps as I started licking inside her almost caused me to lose control. I alternated between licking inside, circling her clit, and sucking at it, with my left hand still massaging her scalp and my right hand playing with her hard nipples, and her breathing quickly grew ragged, while her muscles visibly strained as she fought to remain passive. I kept at her for long minutes, feeling her getting closer and closer to orgasm, and eased up at the last minute, keeping her on the edge and prolonging her torment, until finally she couldn't take it anymore, and she grabbed my head and held my mouth against her clit until she came, shouting my name in her climax.

I only gave Hilde a minute to rest afterwards, before I stood up on my knees behind her, pinned her hands above her head, kissed her hard, and drove my hard cock inside her. She felt wonderful around me, hot and wet and tight, and she moaned into my mouth as I started moving slowly inside her. She was so short that I had to arch my back in order to kiss her, but that small discomfort went unnoticed behind the sensation of sliding in and out of her, and the taste of her mouth. I kept a slow steady rhythm, my left hand pinning both of Hilde's and my right hand playing with her soft breast and her hard nipple, and in far too short a time I felt a tightening in my balls and within another minute I drove all the way inside her and stayed there, gasping as I felt the intense pleasure of climaxing inside her.

I don't know if it was the incredible attraction I felt for the woman lying underneath me, the boost to my strength and stamina from the life force I absorbed earlier, or both, but I was still hard, and didn't need even a moment of rest.

I resumed my slow, rhythmic motions inside Hilde's pussy, and lowered my head to catch one of her nipples in my mouth, sucking hard on it and hearing her gasp with pleasure. I felt the pleasure start to build up again inside me, and altered my rhythm in an attempt to prolong it. I kept it up for a while longer, switching rhythms whenever I got to close, hearing Hilde's breaths grow more and more ragged, until I felt her pussy tighten up around me as she screamed my name again. The sensation of her pussy clenching around me and the knowledge that I made her cum again drove me over the limit, and I shouted her name as I emptied myself inside her for the second time.

Afterwards, I released her hands and collapsed on top of her, and felt the events of the day finally catch up to me. Exhausted from the battle and its aftermath, we both fell asleep shortly, with my head resting on her soft breasts.